Dungeon Practicum (6)
“Uwaaah!”
The Gray Ogre swung the club in its hand.
A thunderous crack split the air as it tore through the atmosphere, and a berserk storm came hurtling toward us.
CRASH!
The blow hammered down into the ground. Cracks spidered across the bedrock, carving out a pit so deep it could have been mistaken for a ravine.
A cloud of dust billowed up and swallowed our vision whole.
“Is everyone okay? Is anyone hurt—!”
Mori's voice rang out, calling to check on her companions.
But that very act betrayed her position to the enemy.
WHUMP!
“Ah…”
The massive club came slicing through the dust and crashed down over her head. As she finally looked up, the shadow of death fell across her eyes.
BOOM!
The Ogre's strike hammered the ground once more. At the center of the caved-in earth lay a scene of utter devastation. The ground around the sunken crater had been scorched flat as if a missile barrage had struck it — but no human corpse was to be seen.
“Are you all right?”
“...”
I asked the question of Mori, whom I held cradled in my arms. She was still dazed, staring blankly up at my face. I carefully lowered her to the ground so she wouldn't stumble.
“Mori! Thank god you're okay!”
“Kael…”
Kael came rushing over and threw her arms around her.
Her trembling hands swept over Mori's body, checking every inch of her, and tears welled up in Kael's eyes.
“Thank god. Thank you, thank god.”
Had we been even a moment later, an unrecognizable corpse would have been sprawled across that fractured earth. Instead of the cold, mangled body that should have been lying there in pieces, Kael clutched a body that was warm and breathing — and shuddered with relief.
It was the exact opposite of how the original story went.
—Mori! No, please, MORI!
The scene where Kael, her companion, broke down sobbing in front of a shape ground into pulp of blood and flesh.
It was the moment that seared the cruelty of this world into the readers of Academy Yuri Princess — fans who had picked it up expecting nothing but a cozy healing story — through the brutal death of a supporting character.
Except that I had intervened here and bent the story in a different direction.
“Thank you, junior. Truly, thank you.”
Once she'd confirmed Mori was safe, Kael bowed her head to me. She looked utterly at a loss, fumbling for some way to repay the debt of having saved her companion's life.
“It's nothing, really. I just did what anyone should.”
Standing by and watching someone die when I had the power to save them simply didn't sit well with me. I'm not deranged enough to enjoy watching people die.
“Guys, I'm glad you're okay — really — but focus up. Now.”
Toma's voice cut through the heady atmosphere and snapped their fraying nerves back into place. Desperately she drew up her mana and readied herself for combat, and the other Guardians fixed their eyes on the Gray Ogre.
“Grrrgh!”
The massive form emerged through the cloud of dust, baring bloodstained teeth with plenty of swagger. Every step it took made the earth tremble, and a crushing pressure coiled around my entire body.
Gulp.
Kael swallowed hard at the tension. The shadow fell across her usually bright and cheerful face.
She wasn't the only one. These were seasoned veterans, Guardians who'd been through countless battles, yet even they couldn't hide the cold sweat beading on their foreheads.
As a devoted reader of Academy Yuri Princess, I assessed the situation coldly.
Their odds of victory were close to zero.
Not because these people were weak.
It was because the Gray Ogre — that monster — belonged among the Guardians, the ones called the leaders of all monsters, and specifically among the mid-tier rank of that order.
The moment one of them appeared in a city, a citywide emergency would be declared, and dozens of Guardian teams would swarm in to subdue it.
Asking a single team to face one was as good as a death sentence.
The Guardians on the scene knew this better than anyone, and at last Kael made her decision.
“Juniors — listen carefully to what I'm about to say.”
“W-wait… yes?”
Eva couldn't hide her bewilderment at Kael's heavy voice.
I listened to her in silence.
“You see the gate behind that Ogre?”
Where Kael's finger pointed, a crack of blue light gaped open.
“The empowered monster that was this floor's gatekeeper died to that Ogre, and its escape route opened with it. Get to that gate, and you'll live.”
“R-right, I understand. All of us together—”
“No. We'll buy you time. You go in there, and you tell the outside world what happened here. Don't look back.”
“Uh, ah…”
Eva stammered. Stumbling over her words was her habit, but this was the worst it had ever been.
Shock, terror, and refusal all churned together in her eyes.
This was how the author had described Eva's heart in the original:
What are you saying? Come with me. Let's all go together.
But the voice inside her never made it out.
Meanwhile, Mori and Toma drove the point home, hammering the nails in.
“That's the best option. Trust me.”
“We'll give you a signal — the moment it comes, run for the gate with everything you've got. Don't look back. Not even once.”
The noble self-sacrifice of senior Guardians ready to throw away their lives for their juniors. It was the moment their mission — to protect the citizens and save the world from monsters — shone its brightest.
According to the original story, this was where Chloe would calmly accept it, lead Eva out through the gate, and escape across the backs of her seniors' sacrifice.
It was the raising of the curtain on Part One — a buildup meant to show that Academy Yuri Princess was no mere slice-of-life story.
“Now hurry! There's no time!”
“UWAAAAAH!”
The instant Kael's desperate cry rang out, the Ogre lunged its colossal body forward. At the peak of that tragic resolve, the protagonist would shed tears of grief for the sacrifice, and grow.
Mm, mm. Yes — this is the scene.
As a reader, this was what I had so badly wanted to see. The weight of being a Purity Academy student! The powerful narrative of awakening to a Guardian's destiny!
And with that, the watchable part was over. All that remained was—
“Okay, everyone, that's enough of that.”
—bringing this melodrama to a close.
I stepped forward, walking right past the Guardians.
“Wait — what are you doing?!”
Mori cried out in alarm at my sudden move and reached out to stop me, but her hand never touched my shoulder.
“Stay right there, please, seniors.”
“Urgh—!”
I released the mana coiled around my heart and let it flood through my whole body.
A brilliant stream of golden light engulfed me, as though I myself had become a source of radiance.
Solar War Body
Solis's secret art — the technique of the Clan, the bloodline called the descendants of God, the lineage of the God King.
I'd used it once before, when I first met Chloe. I had wrapped my body in mana and claimed victory.
But now, having mastered the handling of the halo, with my soul settled firmly and stably into this body, my attainments had climbed to a whole new level.
“I was just looking for a sparring partner. How convenient.”
The technique had now surpassed merely reinforcing my body and reached the point where it warped the world around me.
FWOOOM!
“This is…!”
“My body… it won't move…”
The mana pouring off me pressed down on everything around it like gravity itself, pinning the nearby Guardians in place.
Only Eva remained free to move within the crushing pressure, her eyes fixed on me.
“Uwaaah…?”
A wave of mana dominated the entire area. Like a dam bursting, the golden tide rolled in — and the Ogre froze mid-motion.
The majestic presence of the predator that had been roaring so ferociously a moment ago was gone without a trace. Like a rat paralyzed by instinctive terror, it coiled its tail and backed away.
Will it run? Or will it charge?
I leisurely watched its reaction. Either way was more fun that way.
If it bolted, then chasing it down would have its own thrill. And if it came at me, this was my chance to see exactly how far I'd grown.
The tension of a western standoff — two gunslingers, a hair's breadth from the draw.
The Ogre, arms trembling and sweat pouring like rain, finally made its choice.
“UWAAAAH!”
A desperate scream from the very threshold of death. It glared at me with bloodshot eyes and swung its club for all it was worth.
WHUMP!
The sonic boom tearing through the air slammed against my eardrums.
The Ogre was a simple monster that merely reinforced its body with mana. But thanks to its brute, mindless strength and a physique that crushed everything with a single blow, it had earned a place among the mid-tier Guardians. The author herself had declared that in terms of raw destructive power alone, few monsters outside the upper ranks could stand against it.
And I met that power head-on.
“Haah.”
With a short, sharp cry, I thrust out my fist.
A fist laden with the radiance of the sun collided dead-on with the falling club.
KRA-BOOM!
Thunder split the sky as the detonation erupted. The impact of the clash shook the earth, and the ground beneath our feet collapsed.
The violent gale scoured my vision white — and in that instant—
Crack!
SHATTER!
The club — its pride, its weapon — snapped as pathetically as a rotten branch.
With the obstacle gone from its path, my fist never slowed, aiming straight for the Ogre's skull.
WHUMP!
My arm cleaved through the air.
WHAM!
Compressed mana and the shockwave of displaced air slammed into the Ogre's face.
It was nothing more than a single, simple punch.
POP!
Without even a final gurgle, the Ogre's head burst like a balloon. Blood and brains sprayed in every direction as the massive body toppled to the ground.
THUD.
A heavy silence settled through the drifting dust.
I dusted off my hands as I watched the scene.
“Not bad.”